The Sawdust Principle: How to Use Business Byproducts to Create Growth Opportunities

As a Yale Entrepreneurial Institute Venture Mentor, I have the privilege of working with some of the world’s most creative and inspiring future business leaders.

Currently, I'm mentoring a startup called Tuckerman & Co — a mission-driven clothing brand hell-bent on creating environmentally sustainable clothing to address the abundance of unnecessary waste in the textiles industry. And as is often the case in mentoring, I am learning as much, if not more, from them as they are from me.

As a result of this relationship, I've begun to critically assess wasted value at my creative agency. In doing so, I've realized that many of our endeavors have brought about leftovers that could be treated as valuable byproducts, rather than waste.

Enter the “Sawdust Principle” — a new concept aimed at finding value in the byproducts of each of your efforts.